Looking back at the breakup of the Soviet Union 30 years ago

Thirty years ago on Dec. 25, 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the leader of the USSR, stepped down. And Boris Yeltsin became president of a newly independent Russia.

Host Scott Tong speaks with Angela Stent, director of Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University, about the events that led up to the collapse.

And Masha Gessen, staff writer at The New Yorker, talks about what life was like for people in Russia as it transitioned from part of a massive communist empire to an independent country.